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Verschlagwortet: colonialism

Hussein Muruwwa dressed as a "Shaykh" or "Mujtahid" and "secular" 0

The Red Mujtahid: Hussein Muruwwa’s Synthesis of Islamic Heritage and Revolutionary Marxism

Hussein Muruwwa (1908-1987) developed a materialist hermeneutics that challenged the false choice between cultural authenticity and revolutionary transformation facing postcolonial Arab intellectuals. His monumental work al-Nazʿat al-Madiyya demonstrates that historical materialism can unlock revolutionary potential within Islamic heritage by treating turath as a dynamic historical product rather than a static spiritual legacy. Against both Orientalist dismissals that portrayed Islam as inherently backward and Salafist idealizations that romanticized an ahistorical golden age, Muruwwa’s dialectical analysis revealed indigenous rationalist and progressive tendencies within Arab-Islamic philosophy. His synthesis proves that postcolonial revolutionaries need not abandon their cultural foundations to pursue radical social change, offering crucial insights into how traditional knowledge systems can serve rather than impede liberation struggles.

Arabian Woman and child 1896 1

Children in vulnerable positions in the 19th century Ottoman Empire

The text deals with the abuse of power towards children in the late Ottoman Empire. It shows that children were often in vulnerable positions, especially orphans and half-orphans, and that their fate was often the subject of public debate and political action. The situation of orphan girls was particularly precarious, as social, moral, financial and political constraints often prevented mothers from protecting their children. Whereas the government did not interfere in early forced marriages of girls, it became active in the religious identity of foundlings and forced conversions, especially in the context of increasing social and religious diversity and Western influence in the 19th century.